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Czech cinema
The Lumière films were screened in Prague within a few months of their initial showing in Paris in 1895. In 1898, Czech filmmaker Jan Krizenecky produced a handful of short actualities starring comic actor Josef Svab-Malostransky. The first purpose-built cinemas opened in Prague from 1907, and regular film production began from 1910, with an adaptation of the Bedřich Smetana opera Prodana nevesta/The Bartered Bride (Max Urban, 1913). Literary adaptations were also very popular with Czech audiences. The subsequent development of cinema in the Czech Republic is tied to, and congruent with, that of Czechoslovakia (see Slovakia, film in), a nation formed in 1918 of which the Czech Republic formed a part until 1993. In spite of competition from neighbouring Germany, some 40 features had been produced by the late 1930s, with the Barrandov studios in Prague among the most advanced in Europe. Output was largely commercial, with Martin Fric a prolific director, but this was leavened by the more artistic work of Gustav Machatý, whose Erotikon (1929) and its sequel of sorts, Extase/Ecstasy (1933), attracted critical acclaim and an international audience. ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Czech Republic, film in the. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 Aug. 2022
Czech New Wave
A film movement associated with a group of filmmakers active during the political and cultural ‘thaw’ that took place across the Eastern bloc during the 1960s, and which manifested itself in Czechoslovakia in a period of political and cultural liberalization that culminated in the Prague Spring of 1968. Internationally successful, and considered the most significant film movement of postwar Central and Eastern European cinema, the Czech New Wave turned its back on the Socialist Realism favoured in the centralized film industry of the country’s Soviet-dominated years.
The middle years of the decade saw the appearance of some sixty films marked by absurdism and black humour, and characteristically featuring young non-professional actors performing unscripted dialogue. Štefan Uher’s Slnko v sieti/Sun in the Net (1962) and Milos Forman’s feature debut Černý Petr/Black Peter (1963) are widely regarded as inaugurating this new wave. They were followed by Forman’s Lásky jedné plavovlásky/A Blonde in Love (1965) and Horí má panenko/The Fireman’s Ball (1967), both nominated for Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category; and Jiří Menzel’s Oscar-winning Ostre sledované vlaky/Closely Observed Trains (1966). Other key films of the Czech New Wave include Vera Chytilova’s freewheeling feminist farce Sedmikrásky/Daisies (1966); Obchod na korze/The Shop on Main Street (Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, 1965), winner of the 1966 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; Intimní osvetlení/Intimate Lighting (Ivan Passer, 1965); and Valerie a týden divů/Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jireš, 1970). Following the repression of the Prague Spring, many of the filmmakers fled into exile, with Milos Forman and Ivan Passer moving to the US to embark on successful careers in Hollywood. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s documentary CzechMate: In Search of Jiři Menzel (India, 2018) includes interviews with Forman, Passer, and Chytilova as well as with Menzel himself. ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Czech New Wave. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 Oct. 2024
You can use the subject heading below to find resources in the online catalog. The call number range is also included.
Articles and other writings about Czech films can be found in different publications. Our collection does not include any journals which look exclusively at Czech films. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.
Find more Czech films in the online catalog.